One Lovely Blog Award!

Many, many thanks to Bruce Partingon-Plans over at Eclectic Ephemera for giving me this award! When I received your comment to let me know about it, you made my day :)

I know this is very long overdue, but welcome to all my new lovely followers! It has been a very interetsing and challenging year, and writing this blog and reading all of your posts has always kept me motivated to keep going and keep creating! Now I have my hands back in working order, I have many plans to jazz this site up, and look forward to hearing what you all think! I'm hoping this year will be a much more constructive one and look forward to sharing it with you :)

So on to the award. As is tradition, I now have to select a further 15 of my favourite blogs to pass this well deserved award onto. Although I may have been a little on the silent front, the follwing ladies, and gents, have been keeping me busy reading their posts, inspiring new projects, and educating me in many ways, and to you I want to say a very very big THANK YOU!

Boo Boo Kitty Couture

Butterflies and Daisys

By gum, by golly!

Diary of a Vintage Girl

Esme and the Laneway

LandGirl1980
Love Letter from London

Super+Super HQ

Tales of a Southern Retro

The Butterfly Balcony

The Freelancer's fashionblog

The Little Red Squirrel

Tuppence Ha'penny

Va-Voom Vintage

Vintage Vixen

And onto the second part, the 7 facts about me you may not already know:

1. I love painting. I know I've never blogged about it, but I used to paint a hell of a lot. Not so much recently, but am currently working away on something a bit smaller as a present for someone, so I may get back into painting this year after all.

 

2. I have 2 pet fish: Fish and Ratfink.

3. I'm lactose intollerant, but a chocaholic. This can be problamatic indeed. Chocolate usual wins though.

4. I LOVE boardgames. The Mister and I have games nights on a regular basis, and we've built up a collection of vintage boardgames now, including BP Offshore Oilstrike, Formula 1, Go! and Golf Tiddlewinks.

5. Back in college, I used to be a scary Goth. Evidence below. Needless to say, the parents approve of the Vintage look much more ;)

6. I took ballet classes for 6 years, it's been a veeeery long time though!

7. I love baking, and I make some scrummy Baklava Muffins!

Thank you again and Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

Walking through the Sussex Countryside

For those of you in the UK, you'll have noticed how incredible the weather has been this last week, so as soon as the weekend came, we hopped into the car and drove out for a walk through the Sussex countryside. With it hitting 28C, I opted for my 1970's Floral Maxi dress to keep cool and covered. That sunshine buuuurns if I'm not covered and wearing factor 50+.  

Can anyone recommend a really good sunscreen? I really don't want to burn this year. As you can tell, I am very very pale, and always worry about skin damage, the dreaded C word, and not ending up looking like a leather handbag in my later years. Plus, tan marks, or rather burn marks in my case, seem to hang around for weeks before going! Tips very much welcomed :)

I've had this locked away in the wardrobe all winter. Another amazing Charity Shop find a few years back in Eastbourne (highly recommended for a rummage).

We packed a little picnic and spent the early afternoon strolling through the meadows with Charlie, and then drove down to Bognor Regis on the coast for a little beachtime and charity shop hunting. More on that in the next post, we found an exclusively Vintage charity shop hidden away!

Fingers crossed the weather is here to stay a little longer for the Jubilee next weekend!

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

Cocktail Making, Tiki Style

We've stocked up our 1950's Tiki Bar for the first time, in anticipation for those Summer BBQs and Cocktail parties we hope to be having.

So what better friday night-in than to test out some of the recipes in our 1932 Cocktail Book?

Let the Cocktail making begin!

L.J.

xxx

1950's Yelow & Green Florals

Out and about taking Charlie for his weekend you-know-what, we stopped off at the park in Horsham for a few quick snaps (the sun actually made an appearance!!)

I picked this dress up at the recent Vintage Pop-Up Fair in Hassocks, along with the previously mentioned raspberry dress, and Saturday last week was my first opportunity to wear it out, with my hand made cardi :)

Still a bit on the chilly side, but us Brits pretend its summer even when it's only 14C and cloudy outside ;) heh.

1950's Floral Dress - Trailor Trash Vintage, Hassocks

1940's Cardi - handmade by me!

Shoes - Primarni

Hat - To be Worn Again, Brighton

Diasy-chain - thrifted

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

Experiments in Vintage Crochet - Part 1

I call this part one, as I expect I'll be experimenting a little more in future after this first attempt.

I've recently purchased some scanned vintage crochet patterns from a few sellers on Etsy, the first of which I mentioned in my previous post on my quest to improve my chrochet skills HERE was from Jenny at KinsieWoolShop, and also purchased a handful from 2ndLookVintage using this pattern:

Original Here

I didn't quite manage to follow the pattern exactly, and again, didn't even realise until I was doen with side 1! When it came to finishing the repeating part of it, and then lengthening the bottom, I really couldn't understand why it wasn't looking like the picture, and why my stitch count didn't match the instructions.

This one was a bit more tricky than the cardi, but once you got the first few lines done, it's just a matter of repeating until you get to the right size. Confusingly, you start with the vertical lines in the centre top that look like they're holding the folds of the bag, and then work out the zigzags from there. It's my very first attempt at crocheting a handbag, and I used chunkier, cheaper wool to have a play first, before I try my second attempt.

But, after pinning it on to my manequin, it took the perfect shape to form part of a bodice! I do love a happy accident!

I can't really figure out how to go from here though. I could either crochet a 2nd side and sew them together to make my own version of the bag, or I could try and make this into a top of some sort. But to crochet, or use fabric?

What would you suggest?

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

Giving the 60's a Go Go

I have to admit, I've always shyed away from the 60's style due to the short skirts, and my chunky little legs. But it's been grey, miserable, and raining for what seems like forever, so I decided, bugger it, I need some bright colour in my life right now!

So I covered up, with a little flash of colour underneath. I picked the coat up last year in a charity shop that sadly no longer exists in Haywards Heath, and I think, but please correct me on this, that it is either late 60's or early 70's, with a label from Spinney...any clues anyone? The thing I love most about it though is the fact you can either button it up all the way, including the collar, or leave the top 2 buttons undone for a more 70's look. Due to the weather, I opted for the warmer option, buttoned up.

Maybe I should remember to take pictures before heading out for a day in the elements...never mind!

And on to the flash of colour!! Bright is definitely one way to describe this little dress. I have tried wearing it without a belt, how it was meant to really, but someone was kind enough to tell me I looked pregnant...so the belt had to be added. Being bottom heavy with little on top is not so flattering in a swinging sixties style dress, heh. I fell for the big bright floral print pretty quickly when I spotted it though :)

And you can also see my Made-by-Me crochet cardi sneaking in there too.

Oh and on to the bargain of the week...I picked up these (60's/70's?!) boots in a fleamarket in Lewes on Monday for a grand sum of £5....£5 for real leather, never been worn boots? Yes please!

When will the Summer ever begin? Will we be putting our winter garbs away soon? I do hope so, my vintage cotton dress collection is screaming to come out!

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

1940's Crochet Bolero Project

Finally finished my crochet bolero! It took just over 2 weeks to finish (I still have to limit any activity involving my hands....so nearly everything...to under an hour an evening, stupid hands). I made the silly silly mistake of getting carried away and not actually measuring the piece like the pattern told me, repeatedly, to do. So after following the pattern, but using a larger hook, I ended up with a finished piece about 8" too big. So it will now be a slouchy cardi, still serves its purpose :) next time it will be more accurate! heh I have learnt my lesson now!

This is what it should have looked like:

If you want to have a go at this, and create a more fitted version, with pom-pom's, head over to Kinsie Wool Shop on Etsy. I've purchased a handful of these patterns from them, and can't wait to work my way through them. Thoroughly recommend for you fellow crocheters!

I found the pattern really straight forward, and once you'd finished the first 2 rows, it was just a pattern of repeating the same stitches. Definitely a good one for either beginners or someone wanting a project to get back into crocheting without too much thought ;)

And this is how mine turned out, sans pom-poms:

This is my first piece of crochet clothing I've completed since I was about 14, but now have the confidence to start trying to make more complicated pieces, as long as I have a supply of tape measures, chocolate, and a very patient boyfriend who doesn't mind becoming a 'widower' while I'm antisocial and counting away at my crochet.

Much love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

1930's Hair Style

I recently met up with my old college chum Kristy Hobden last week to have another mini-shoot at mine. As it's been quite some time since I've had any proper photos taken, I actually made the effort to set my hair properly for the first time this year (I have been very very lazy in that department) and actually ended up going into work the day of the shoot with curlers still in, hair pins holding it all in place, and a big head scarf to wrap it up...and nobody even noticed! Good news for me, because it means I might actually do this a bit more often.

Anyway, on to the results. Kristy kindly took one or two hair shots for the blogs, and has promised to send me a few of the final ones later this week, can't wait to see what they've turned out like :)

I was quite chuffed with this, haven't done finger waves in the front before. What do you think? ny tips for future adventures in hair setting?



All curled up at the back:

And the wave at the front:

Look forward to posting up some of the finals in the next few days.

Much Love from Brighton,

L.J.

xxx

KRISTY HOBDEN
Freelance Live Music & Portrait Photographer

www.kristyhobden.com

www.twitter.com/kristy_hobden